The United States Supreme Court on a 5-4 vote Thursday morning upheld that the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, would be allowed as a tax. Senior Fellow for Constitutional Studies with the Independence Institute, Rob Natelson, says the decision was a surprise to many court-watchers. He says Chief Justice John Roberts did everything he could to accommodate Congress so that the bill could be fully implemented.

Natelson says conservatives can take some measure of comfort in that the High Court by a vote of 7-3. struck down the part of the law that would punish states that refused to cooperate by taking away their Medicaid programs. Natelson says overturning the health care law will be difficult without a 60 vote majority in the U. S. Senate. Natelson says the final arbiter in this decision is not the Supreme Court, but rather the American people. Hear Mr. Natelson’s unedited comments below.